A "legend and lore" post wrote before my World of Cthon cosmology idea, it explores sorcery as channeling of raw magic, predating wizardry and eventually originating it!A big real-world mythology figure inspired the story... Which one?!

Monday, November 19, 2012

The World of Cthon

Hello fellow planeswalkers!

I've been quiet for a long time, and
the cosmology as I had thought about it is actually quite done as it
is, in that it is meant to be generic, a sort of "meta-cosmology", a
template that anyone can use to make his or her own thing.

An idea has kind of sprout out of this loose project, something a bit more exotic and a bit less generic.

Real world / anthropological inspirations: three "classes" of gods.

The idea sparked while talking about the real-world inspiration
behind the "trinity" composed by Elders, Primordials/Titans and Gods.

I
tried to explain how in our world, all long-lasting cultures tend to
have in their mythologies at least two "classes" of gods, the older and
the newer, with some also remembering some beings that were pure chaos
and that came way before even the first generation of "gods".

I
tried to explain how in our world, these different generations of gods
represent the level of cultural advancement of the culture that invented
them.

The first generation of gods, the Elders: pure darkness and chaos.

The
"Elders" would be chaotic and destroyers because the most primitive
cultures that generated them basically viewed the whole world around
them as an evil killing machine, that destroyed everything and everyone.

They are very often represented as hybrid beasts that mix the
worst traits of the worst predators, and are more often than not aquatic
or tied to the darkness, because both water and darkness are the two
"elements" in which man feels less safe.

Typically, these "deities" require human sacrifices, irrational rituals and even worse things from their desperate followers.

The second generation of gods, the Primordials: masters of the elements.

Then comes the Elemental/Primordial generation, which is the beginning of rationalizations.

These
gods start having humanoid features, especially in their
"personalities", but they're often identified with natural landmarks or
forces (volcanoes, the sea, etc), and their destructive side is directly
connected to this.

We still have aquatic and darkness "deities", but they're a bit more benevolent.
They're
not anymore mindless killers, but they're like very moody and powerful
giants. Please them and they let you pass, anger them and they turn the
forces of nature against you.

Generally speaking, the age of
these "Titan gods" is a "golden age", in which the first mighty heroes
arise, and the land begins to be generous to mortals. And these mortals
become the legends of the successive era. Their grand-grandsons will
remember this age as an age in which life was easy and good. Probably
because rationalism hadn't yet "plagued" the minds of men.

The third generation of gods, the Celestials: incorporeal and intelligent.

Then
comes the age of the classical Gods, Celestial gods in that they are
much more often associated with the sky and/or are considered "ethereal"
and abstract.

These gods are all but completely humane, and even
if they still control the forces of nature, they are not one and the
same with them, and they do so with intelligence, even if they're often
subject to human emotions and passions, and can even fall in love with
humans.

[The previous generations of gods, mythologially
speaking, could also probably procreate with humans, but the offspring
would be either complete monsters (in the case of Elders), or maybe
giants and other not so lucky beings (in case of Titans/Primordials).
Celestial gods procreating with humans would instead produce the typical
demi-gods, or at the very least legendary heroes.]

Men
living in this age (which I consider the typical age in which D&D
campaigns are set) have fallen a bit back in terms of happiness. Their
gods are not evil anymore, but they're also distant, and the advancement
of civilization has probably brought more nations into contact,
generating war. And rationality and the beginnings of science/magic have
also made the mortals feel more wary of each other.

Note that I
know this latest generation of gods and connected era isn't actually a
faithful representation of the classical Greco-Roman gods from which it
takes inspiration: I'm shifting things a bit forward to encompass the
"medieval feeling" of typical D&D settings, but without of course
including monotheism.
In this "system", the classical Greco-Roman gods and age would sit a bit in the middle between the Celestial and the Elemental.

The tree types of gods as a foundation for a D&D cosmology.

But all of this is not the point! The point is that as you can see,
these generations seem to build one on top of the other. But most
D&D campaigns would like both a plane or two associated with each
one of these categories, and most importantly, would want these
categories available at all times. That is, the Elders must still be a
threat, and so the Elemental gods.

So I thought about the most
simple concept of geology, my field of study and I hope work. "The new
always sits on top of the old".

Gods and their domains "pile up" on top of each other, inside the earth.

So
here's the idea: these three generations of gods or powerful beings,
would actually have dominated the world in different and distant times.
But due to cataclysms, time itself and a good dose of fantastic
elements, they would have not died but gone where all really old things
go: underground.

So much more than in the cosmology I described
in the previous posts, this cosmology would be "vertical" and
"localized". That is, planes exist in physical spaces (although they
could still be infinite, at least from the point of view of mortals),
and they exist on top of each other.

____________________________

The Elders: primitive and dangerous, sleeping deep underground or under the sea.

Note
that Elders, in this case, are not anymore the beings from other
universes. Their alien nature is represented more by the fact that the
races that worshiped them were very primitive ones, and this in D&D
means they were not human-like. Perhaps not even humanoid.

A dragon-like elder, distinguished by the later dragons for its more primitive, demonic, and chaotic features...

Another demonic and strange Elder god...

What's
more, I would add demons in this mix. All the strangest and more evil
creatures, including demons and aberrations, would be the spawns or
maybe even hybrid offspring of these Elder Gods.

The Elder's favored intelligent races: monstrous and primitive.

Kuo-toas,
Lizardmen, Sahuagin, Troglodytes and the like would be the races that
"thrived" when these gods were at the apex of their power, and the
appearance of these gods would have been similar to that of these races,
which were probably their creations (or the opposite!).

While
humans were just scared cave-men or hadn't even evolved yet, these first
races would have erected temples and cities in honor of these gods.
Elves probably hadn't yet arrived in the world (because maybe the
Feywild wasn't yet connected to the world or didn't even exist because
the true "elven gods" weren't even born yet), same for all the typical
races. The world was too violent and chaotic for these races to survive.

Colossal
serpentine Elders rise from the deepest primitive jungles to appreciate
the temples that their reptilian followers have built for them...

The surreal, chaotic, and incredibly dangerous world of the First Age.

The legacy of the Elders.

Some
races will have murky and chaotic legends and stories recalling this
age, but there would be so many different versions of these stories,
that nothing could be sure. So this era will go away practically
forgotten, its knowledge recorded only in dead languages written on lost
objects by all but extinct races.

This also allows the DM to decide that just about anything could have happened in these ancient times.

___________________

The rise of the Primordials: embodying the natural disasters that birthed them.

Natural
disasters came in big numbers at the end of this era, until the
primitive races and their first empires were all but destroyed, and the
very surface of the world shifted and this "corrupted" world was
swallowed by the earth itself, becoming the first Underdark.

The
second age would be elemental-themed also in the fact that it is born of
the great disasters that submerged, swallowed and destroyed the elder
world/era.
Volcanoes are more active than ever, big deserts abound,
but also new virgin forests where the climate allows it, and in general,
even if nature is fierce, there is a lot of variety and this permits
the rise of civilization here and there.

The
colossal disasters and commotions that destroyed the first age world,
sending it underground, and starting the "elemental age"...

The Primordials' favorite races: dragons and giants, but also elves and dwarves.

The
classical races are born in this age, although most of them are still
primitive. Humans in particular, are just coming out of their caves.

This
is the age of dragons (actually, some of the elemental gods can and
should be draconic), of giants, and of the glorious dawns of elves and
dwarves.

The Feywild or "World of Faerie" from which elves
traditionally come from would be something like the dream of a Forest
God, turned into a parallel world.

Note that Primal Spirits are
mixed with these Primordial gods in this cosmology, just as Demon Lords
and Elders are grouped together.

A draconic "forest god" primordial, with a small dragon.

The
typical Primordials would be the more classically elemental of the
bunch, while the "primal spirits" would be "elementals" of the
primordial forests, embodying the "elements" of life, wood, etc.

A typical elemental Titan, battling the very first mortal heroes...

Dwarves would instead be of course the creation of an Earth primordial, which you can cal Moradin if you like.

The problem of the origin of the gods: a non-solution that still works.

It is actually tricky to decide if we want the races to be created by gods as the D&D tradition wants, or the contrary.
This
whole idea was born while thinking the contrary, but it's not necessary
to be coherent in this in all cases. That is, some gods could predate
their followers or have created them, while some other could have
actually originated supernaturally from the prayers of the mortals.
One
way to see things is that a race becomes connected to a god when it
reaches its apex. The god could be either a creation or a creator, but
simply enough it becomes "associated" with the race when it becomes
important, when it acquires culture and spirituality.
This allows
for a much more ancient human race, perhaps even having resisted since
the first age. Because we don't have to think "who created them?", since
it's not a question relevant to this cosmology. It's more like "they're
not an important race yet, so they don't have a patron god".

In
this case, Elves should not "come from the dream-world of the Forest
god", but perhaps having gained access to this world since they became
the favorite race of the Forest God, because of their natural affinity
and respect for Forests, and their wisdom. More of a "each god chooses
its favorite race" thing, that allows ambiguity between creator and
creation, and a good measure of mystery.

Anyway, this age is the
typical ancient time of any campaign. A "golden age", but where Elves
and Dwarves start their wars or grudges, Dragons thrive, Giants rule
etc.

The second age is the "golden age", where
mortals are strong and happy (or remembered this way), and the first
empires rise, in harmony with nature, at least for a time...

_______________________________

The classic Celestial Gods are born: from material entities to abstract entities.

The
third age is the age of men. The second age ended a bit like it
started: great disasters, but this time more magical in nature. The
elves pushed their spells too far, the dwarves dug to deep (perhaps
unleashing the demons locked away before!), the dragon-gods rained fire
and ice on the whole earth and made mountains crumble while fighting for
supremacy, and the giants did other terrible and BIG things.

The
result? The world changes again, many places are swallowed by the
Earth, the great Elven empires blink away into the Feywild bringing with
them the first primordial forests, and everything becomes smaller and
less extreme. That's why men (and other "weak" races, such as halflings)
begin to thrive.

The
third age world, where everything is "smaller" than in the past, an in
which humans begin to thrive, wondering about the ancient ruins that
surround them...

The new gods could also have been born out
of the magical disaster. Or perhaps they're just created by the prayers
of men, finally listened to. In any way, these new gods are now secluded
in the skies and are ethereal.

They can't personally walk the
earth like the previous gods, but that doesn't mean they can't bring
trouble. In particular, they use their very numerous followers [humans
always beat all the other races at one thing: reproduction rate!!]
making them battle against each other for supremacy, and things like
that. Before, holy wars were wars between gods. Now the gods just move
their mortal armies from above.

If
humans could see the true forms of their celestial gods, they would not
perfectly understand it. Still they can appear also in very human-like
form, although ethereal.

The age of humans, and the legacy of the previous ages.

So
humanity is apparently the biggest mortal race and thus the luckiest in
history, but it is also the most divided, a bit because of the gods,
and a bit because of human nature itself (and aren't the two things the
same after all..?).

In this bitter/sweet state of uneasy
expansion into a rather emptied world, humans discover that in the murky
past, the world was different and hosted big empires and a lot of
knowledge has been lost to the earth and sea.

A runic artifact
uncovered from abandoned halls in the mountains could teach useful magic
as well as bring back from hibernation some forgotten elemental god.

A
strange idol washed ashore after a storm could imbue its finder with
psionic powers but also give him strange visions that could make him
bring back a cult of an Elder deity, and with time the Elder itself.

Dangerous ancient rituals risk to surface back in the Third Age, bringing terrible evils back with them...

______________________________

Final considerations on the cosmology: simple and straightforward.

It's
actually a very simple cosmology, which uses time and space as the true
limit between the various "planes" and deities, which include all
manners of powerful beings.

Adventurers could reach the "planes"
(that is, the dominions of the current or past deities) relatively
easily, and although they would still be arcane, dangerous, and alien
places, the fact of having them on Earth and the fact that each of them
had been on the very surface of the world at some point in the recent or
distant past, makes this cosmology ideal for small campaigns in which
players want to see a lot of different places, and dig into a lot of
different plots and stories in a short time.

There's no need of
portals or costly rituals to reach fantastic places. The adventurer just
needs a bit of knowledge, and the guts to go deeper underground.
It also makes for the perfect "infinite dungeon", in which each level brings you to something more ancient, strange and dangerous.

The
dungeons and deep places of the world always lead to the ancient
locales of the previous ages. The deeper one goes, the more ancient
things he encounters...

So this is why although being quite
new in conception, it is also an "old" cosmology: it's actually a
cosmology for the good old dungeon-centric typical D&D world!
And
it can be made into a very realistic and simulationist cosmology (with
gods being only invention of each race, for example, made powerful by
the number of their followers), or a classic fantastic one with ease.

What's next??

As I typically do, I considered this project "done" when it's actually just begun.
This
is because I like cosmologies to leave a lot of room for customization,
but since I started this one saying it would be less generic, I think I
will follow up with another post with the actual facts and details
about this one, or at least, my version of this one.

Giving the
cosmology a name is also necessary at this point. It must be something
related to the earth, because if you noticed, all is earth-centric, all
has originated on the earth and many things have been buried under it.
The
first word that comes to mind is "Cthon", the greek-roginated word that
is used to refer to the most ancient deities of ancient Greece, the
"cthonic gods", more or less similar to Elders and/or Primordials.

So let's change the title of this post, and in the next post, we'll be delving deep inside the World of Cthon!

Lord Archaon

Lord Archaon is the most well known (?) fantasy nickname of Rafael, a guy who enjoys many different things, but with this persona mainly writing a lot of useless words about Dungeons & Dragons, and about all the fantasy tropes that the (in)famous game so well represents!